GameTavern - PSP: Confirmed Games are Region Free

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While absolutely definitive proof that PSPs games are open for games of all regions to play will have to wait until US-edition PSP systems are available, we can finally confirm that US games play just fine on Japanese PSPs. We received our first retail copy of a US game -- EA's Need For Speed Underground: Rivals, which we will have further coverage of next week -- and found that it played just fine on the PSP we picked up months ago in Akihabara, Japan. Aside from having to know that Japanese game systems use the circle button to make menu choices instead of the westernized X (which was no longer an issue once we were in the game, as it's only global menus that have this import quirk), there was no evidence when we jumped into the game that our system was bought in Japan instead of in America.

It is still unknown how region systems will work with any of the forthcoming UMD Video releases (although, considering these are the DVD people we're dealing with here instead of Sony, chances are the locks are locked up as expected.) Importers should be aware that, as with any other game system, you should not expect import and domestic versions of games to link multiplayer together -- the systems should connect just fine, but because the US and JPN editions have a different code base because of all the language and tweaks and other edits that go on when localizing a title, the two versions are technically two different games. (We have already tested the US and Japanese editions of Lumines, and unfortunately, they won't link together -- on the other hand, our version eliminates the slowdown and in-game loading that disrupted the Japanese game's rave, so it's a fair fix.)

http://psp.ign.com/articles/593/593861p1.html

There you have it any prospective PSP Buyers. Import away when it arrives here :p :D